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I was offered to purchase what they said is a Mac G5 "tower type". Said specs are 600GB hard drive, 4GB ram and dual core 3.33ghz, ATI video card. I can't find any consitencys with the specs that this is a power Mac G5? What do you guys think? Thanks!!

As far as i can tell from the info you gave, the only thing that seems a little out of whack is the 3.33ghz part of it and the HD size.. Any G5 Tower the highest they went is 2.7ghz. Are you sure it wasn't 2.3ghz ?? The MacPro's and 2009 iMac's where the only Mac's to come out with a 3.33ghz Processor.
With the HD they could of Upgraded the HD to a 600GB, but none came out with 600GB.
The graphic card in them, there was a few to choose from but some did have ATI; ATI Radeon 9600, Radeon 9650, or Radeon X850 XT.

So yea all in all the Processor Speed is the one to be wary of.

HTH

Cheers

Dont forget to use the Reputation System if someone has helped you out !!!Arguing with a zealot is only slightly easier than tunneling through a mountain with your forehead!!!!!MoTM☆☆☆

As Tattooed says there are no 3.3GHz G5 Powermacs. Seems they do not know what they are talking about so suggest strongly giving this one a miss.

Further G5 machines are all PowerPC architecture. Their day has been and gone. Many new applications simply will not run of PowerPC machines. Suggest putting your hard earned towards an Intel machine, and at least a Core 2 Duo capable of running Lion, the current operating system.

Hang on to those original install discs like grim death! Using OS X.7 or later make a bootable USB thumb drive before running Installer!

As Tattooed says there are no 3.3GHz G5 Powermacs. Seems they do not know what they are talking about so suggest strongly hiving this one a miss.

Further G5 machines are all PowerPC architecture. Their day has been and gone. Many new applications simply will not run of PowerPC machines. Suggest putting your hard earned towards an Intel machine, and at least a Core 2 Duo capable of running Lion, the current operating system.

unless of course you like PowerPC, or don't have the money for an Intel Mac, or are fond of being different, or have no use for "new programs" or a variety of other things.

There's nothing implicitly wrong with PPC hardware but purchasing it now gives you a machine that, at best, is a few years out of date. Why spend good money to buy something that's a few years old and non-upgradeable (from a software perspective)?

There's nothing implicitly wrong with PPC hardware but purchasing it now gives you a machine that, at best, is a few years out of date. Why spend good money to buy something that's a few years old and non-upgradeable (from a software perspective)?

for all the reasons I listed above..people must still like them because a look through ebay and Quoka shows they're not cheap by any means

Just because people charge good money doesn't make something better. If you'd like, I'd be happy to sell you my early 08 MB for $900.

They're still good machine from a technical perspective but in terms of being able to use it for the future, you're limiting your options severely from the get go. For instance, the most recent version of OS X you can put on it is Leopard which, although fine, excludes you from using more and more software.

Just because people charge good money doesn't make something better. If you'd like, I'd be happy to sell you my early 08 MB for $900.

They're still good machine from a technical perspective but in terms of being able to use it for the future, you're limiting your options severely from the get go. For instance, the most recent version of OS X you can put on it is Leopard which, although fine, excludes you from using more and more software.

All kidding aside..yes you're limiting yourself to Leopard and as more and more programs go Intel it'll be more difficult to find software. The open source community seems to be helping to keep the PowerPC up and functional though. I like my G5 it's my daily computer it'll stream Amazon HD, has iLife 08, Office 08, CS3 etc. The only thing that I prefer to do on the i5 is transcode movies.

It really isn't throwing money way if it does what you need/want it to do..

- Too many "beachballs", read this: Beachballs- Computer seems slower than it used to? Read this for some slow computer tips: Speedup- Almost full hard drive? Some solutions. Out of Space- Apple Battery Info. Battery

All kidding aside..yes you're limiting yourself to Leopard and as more and more programs go Intel it'll be more difficult to find software.

Macintosh software has been going "Intel" for 5 years now. The point some folks are trying to make is...buying a G5 based computer isn't the best move...especially if it will be someones first Mac or only Mac computer.

Yes they can be affordable (see my earlier post)...but if someone needs a 10.5 Leopard install disk it's going to cost them $80-$100...and software for PPC based Mac's isn't very easy to find. Ram is expensive. So without software...a buyer of a PPC will be limited to internet surfing & e-mail (which isn't too bad).

...add everything up...and you have the $$$ to purchase a used early model Intel Mac-Mini, Intel iMac, or even a MacBook....which is much more "relevant" since they are Intel-based...and can run the latest Mac OS (if they have a core 2 duo cpu).

BELIEVE ME...we here at Mac-Forums have had this discussion 100's of times...nothing new here!

- Nick

- Too many "beachballs", read this: Beachballs- Computer seems slower than it used to? Read this for some slow computer tips: Speedup- Almost full hard drive? Some solutions. Out of Space- Apple Battery Info. Battery

yea looks like 150 to 320 on the first page of an ebay search..but it's an '03-'04 computer..so I'd say thats kinda expensive..They are a bit more here (Germany)..The ones that really amaze me are the Quads..I like my PowerPC and all that but you can a franklin or two to the pice of a quad and get a MP and best of all lose the LCS..

Macintosh software has been going "Intel" for 5 years now. The point some folks are trying to make is...buying a G5 based computer isn't the best move...especially if it will be someones first Mac or only Mac computer.

Yes they can be affordable (see my earlier post)...but if someone needs a 10.5 Leopard install disk it's going to cost them $80-$100...and software for PPC based Mac's isn't very easy to find. Ram is expensive. So without software...a buyer of a PPC will be limited to internet surfing & e-mail (which isn't too bad).

...add everything up...and you have the $$$ to purchase a used early model Intel Mac-Mini, Intel iMac, or even a MacBook....which is much more "relevant" since they are Intel-based...and can run the latest Mac OS (if they have a core 2 duo cpu).

BELIEVE ME...we here at Mac-Forums have had this discussion 100's of times...nothing new here!

- Nick

I disagree..because most are going to have said 4gb come with an install disk and to get going, everything on Open Source Mac is universal.

**Edit** and we'll have a few hundred more, because it's more fun than the Lion/Snow Leopard debate which is stall all the rage 8 months later.